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Monday, November 18, 2013

This was an especially enjoyable weekend, with a tribute to George Chakiris at UCLA Saturday night followed by fun at the Disneyland Resort on Sunday.

The new World of Color - Winter Dreams water show opened at Disney California Adventure on Friday, and we took advantage of a reserved viewing area for Annual Passholders in order to see the show last night.

The loading area and boats have been decorated with whimsical jungle-themed Christmas decorations, which made for a fun change.

We also briefly stopped by the new FROZEN meet and greet cottage in order to check out the audioanimatronic Olaf the Snowman, which has been installed on the roof since our last visit earlier this month.

We then headed home to do other things for a few hours, returning to California Adventure after dark:

Buena Vista Street is absolutely magical at Christmastime, with old-fashioned department store window displays and a classic music loop including songs such as Bing Crosby's "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas."

I love these vintage-style ornaments on display in one of the store windows.

World of Color - Winter Dreams is a completely new presentation for Christmas, themed to tie in with Disney's release of FROZEN (2013) later this month. I enjoyed it very much, especially a miniature NUTCRACKER SUITE with the TOY STORY characters; the Little Green Men are some of my all-time favorite Disney characters, and they're used to great effect.

My other favorite section was of Thumper and Bambi skating on the ice; the lighting and water effects were wonderful.

I think I would have liked the show to have a little more "Christmas" and less "Winter," but the theming made sense given the new movie, which I'm looking forward to seeing.

I really admired the show's creativity, including great projections and light effects on the California Screamin' coaster in the background.

There's lots more about all of the resort's new holiday offerings in a terrific photo post at MiceChat. (I highly recommend the new Chorizo Flatbread temporarily offered at Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta as part of "Viva Navidad"!) As Mary McNamara wrote last week in the Los Angeles Times, Disney offers "the best holiday magic in town."

There's more fun ahead this week! Thursday night I'll be attending a screening of MARY POPPINS (1964) at Disney's El Capitan Theatre, and Saturday night I plan to see a pair of Irene Dunne comedies at UCLA.

2 Comments:

You are doing so many fun things! I'm planning to go to DCA tomorrow to see the new Winter World of Color show as an annual passholder. I've watched it on YouTube and it looks amazing. Seems to me the transitions between scenes is much smoother than the regular show. Have you seen the hand bell ringers/carolers on Buena Vista Street? They are wonderful. I'm also looking forward to the Navidad thing back at Paradise Pier area. I guess Disney can get away calling attention to Jesus' birth as long as it is in Spanish!

Irene, I hope you enjoyed the show too! (You are so right -- I noticed that the main reference to Christmas in the show was when they sang Feliz Navidad, LOL.) I'm looking forward to seeing the show at Viva Navidad and the bell ringers too!